He’d had about enough of this.
‘And who do you think that might be?’ he said. ‘Because if you ask me, there’s only one of us who’s been acting weird – and that’s the person who ran off by himself into the middle of the jungle earlier today.’ He glared at Scott, who seemed to crumple into himself at the words.
‘No, everyone – you can’t think...’ he said weakly. ‘I know it was stupid, running off like that – but I’ve told you why, haven’t I?’
‘Scott, stop. You don’t have to explain yourself again,’ said Naya. ‘Ben is just trying to stir up trouble, maybe to take the attention offhimself.’
His blood pounded in his ears. ‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’
‘Come on, Ben, Naya – this isn’t helping,’ said Carly, moving to stand in front of him.
A rush of thoughts sprinted into Ben’s brain. ‘No, I’m sorry – hold up a second, Scott,’ he said. ‘Didn’t you say you’d hitched a lift to Hannah’s place from Playa Blanca? That’s the nearest village, right? What were you even doing so close to here – and how long had you been there?’ He felt bad saying it, disloyal somehow, but it was true. If theywere stacking up evidence against everyone, they should at least make it fair.
Before Scott could reply, Ben rushed on: ‘And Naya, you got here later than everyone else – how do we know you weren’t just coming back from the middle of the rainforest?’
‘Bordel de merde, Ben, that is ridiculous!’ said Naya. ‘How dare you try to—’
‘That’s enough, both of you. We need to think about this rationally,’ interrupted Mira; even weak and exhausted, there was a quiet power to her voice. ‘There’d be one way to settle it for certain.’ She looked around the group. ‘By getting back to the house, finding our phones. They’ll all have our location history logged on there, as well as our flight details, our email conversations with Hannah – that’ll show exactly where we’ve all been and whether we’re here in good faith, right? I know mine will show I’ve got nothing to hide.’
‘Mine neither,’ said Naya and Scott in unison.
‘Nor mine,’ said Carly.
Ben swallowed.
Jesus.What the fuck was he going to do if they all looked at his phone?
‘Well, it’s a good idea, but it’s not much use to us here, is it?’ he said. ‘Look at where we are. It’s late morning already, and it doesn’t feel like we’re any closer to getting back there than we were yesterday.’
‘I know it feels like that now,’ said Scott, ‘but we’re making progress. We’ll be back before long.’
Ben needed to think fast. ‘This idea is nowhere near as foolproof as you’re all making out – any of us could just wipeour recent locations,’ he said desperately, hoping this would be enough to put them off the plan.
There was silence; he risked a glance at Carly, who was nibbling at her lower lip. ‘Yeah. That’s a good point, to be fair,’ she said eventually. ‘But still – it’s probably the best idea we’ve got, isn’t it?’
Naya nodded. ‘I agree – it’s better than nothing. And we can make it fair – we all show each other our phones at the same time, or something. We don’t want anyone to feel that we’re – ah – picking on them, or cornering them unfairly.’
Again, Ben caught Naya looking at him, but it was quick; subtle. He turned his head so she wouldn’t catch the panic in his eyes.
‘Fine,’ said Ben. ‘As soon as we get back to the house, we’ll all show each other our phones so we can prove there’s nothing to hide.’
The others nodded, satisfied.
Ben waited for them to check the map and the sun one more time and start walking again.
He hovered behind them, under the pretence of doing up a shoelace.
And then, when they all had their backs to him, he turned around and bolted through a gap in the trees as fast as his exhausted, grief-stricken body could carry him.
MIRA
What on earth is going on?
Ben had just turned and hot-footed it away from all of them, right when they were trying to make a plan that would give them some clarity on whether everyone was being honest. It made no sense. Why would he do that?
Unless...
‘Ben, don’t you dare run off,’ Naya was yelling after him, turning on her heel, about to start chasing in the direction of the gap in the trees he’d disappeared into – before, abruptly, she stopped herself.
